Talon Drake Poet Spoken Word

Poet on the Mic

Poet don’t feel right
Poet struggles sleeping at night
POETS NEVER SLEEP

At least…that’s what other poets keep telling me
But this lackluster slumbering just might be
From the unwavering weight of all responsibility

Poet only seems awake while walking through daydreams
Only wants to live life lavished in imagination
Painting alternate universes in which the stars guide me

An alternate universe in which i am happy
The moon and its tides constantly aligned 
An alternate universe in which my artistry arrives unagonized

An alternate universe already constructed by someone else
An alternate universe in which contains an atmosphere in which I can breathe in which should be the one I’m in now 

But my nervous system glitches, 
Spine tinges    spitting gibberish
Jittering    shaky legs racing while staying stationary 
Amazed at the way 
A stage shakes me
In vibrations 

At least its safe to say I said something today
Shared a story shoved, cornered in a junk drawer 
At least I keep poetry in motion
only productive when my mind’s flowing

But I know my audience
I know they’re only hearing my poet voice 
They only see my tragedies rehashed in romantics 

There's only so many ways to manipulate the pain staked 
    in my chest           in my throat               in my head

So I choke on my raw truth 
so it’s more digestible 
for everybody else in the room

If not on the page,
Where is a tortured artists’ pain safe?

Paper scrapes
Psalms
Poems
Cutting deep enough
For me to bleed enough 

For you to envision the misery 
I’m in
Some alternate universe in which I am not a poet

Instead,
             I am illiterate at the expense of my own pen and tongue
Instead, I await the unarriving;
             Bleeding out without any sign of rescue
Instead, I plagiarize my inhabitance to a world
             constructed by everyone except myself

Instead,
I am here

Earth rotates
Everything else still
I am still
Here.

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Suzette Richards September 19, 2025 at 12:31 AM Welcome to PoetrySoup, Talon. I hope to read more of your excellent work. I see that you are published: "A Subtle Body’s Emotion Mind." The above poem is definitely a mic drop. FAVing it. Best wishes, Su